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ground, and how exactly the amount of the
surplus of produce (in value) over expenses
is settled. There obviously cannot be a sur
plus on the marginal land, when any other
available land remains uncultivated, if we
include in the labour the work done in the
way of direction by the farmer himself,
because it is assumed that what is received
for the produce when no rent is paid will be
just sufficient adequately to remunerate the
whole of the factors engaged in working
the land. The surplus derived from the
other lands will evidently be the outcome of
their differential advantages, and this surplus
consequently will be the rent.
In an attempt to settle these further points
there is nothing to baffle those who have
acquired deftness with the marginal method.
Let us think of labour and capital as made
up of doses of productive agents each of a
given value. Thus let us mean by a dose of
labour and capital 20s. spent to the best-known
purpose on labour (including the farmer’s
work), machinery, seed and other farming
necessities in the working of the land. One
dose, of course, might stand for much labour
and little instrumental capital, while another
dose might stand for little labour and much of
the other things required in agriculture. Now